Famous People and Mental Illnesses

June 2006

Mike Wallace, news broadcaster, "60 Minutes," on CBS, talked about his struggle with depression and his attempted suicide.  The video was broadcast on May 21, 2006 on CBS and is available at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/26/search/main886284.shtml?searchString=Mike+Wallace+depression&source=cbsvideos&sort=1&type=any&num=10&offset=0

Or go to www.cbsnews.com and choose "60 Minutes," then video archives.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of U.S. suffered from severe and incapacitating depressions that occasionally led to thoughts of suicide. Read about his life in Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk, 2005, ISBN 0618551166

Ruth Graham, daughter of Ruth and Billy Graham, writes about her depression and thoughts of suicide in her book, In Every Pew Sits a Broken Heart, by Ruth Graham with Stacy Mattingly, 2004.

Brooke Shields talked about her disabling postpartum depression on the Oprah Winfrey show broadcast on May 4, 2005.  On May 3, Brooke's autobiography about her mental illness went on sale: Down Came the Rain.    A transcript ($7.00) of this show is available on the Oprah web site at http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200505/tows_past_20050504.jhtml

Video of the show is not available, but you may view a short video clip over the internet.

To view still pictures (nine of them) with written commentary, go to

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200505/20050504/slide_20050504_101.jhtml . For details about Down Came the Rain, go to http://www2.oprah.com/tows/booksseen/200505/tows_book_20050504_bshields.jhtml

Jane Pauley, newscaster, talked about her depression and bipolar illnesses on the Dateline show (which aired September 1, 2004) with Stone Phillips in an interview, discussing her book, Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5887567/  Free video of Jane Pauley’s interview with Matt Lauer is available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5887567/

Linda Hamilton, star with Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator" movies, talked about her manic-depression on the Oprah Winfrey show which originally aired on Nov. 17, 2004.  Unfortunately, only the transcript is currently available for sale. To order the transcript of the broadcast, go to: http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200411/tows_past_20041117.jhtml

You can listen to a 30 second video interview by Oprah of Linda Hamilton.  You can also click on "Watch after the Show" with Oprah and Linda Hamilton.

Maurice Bernard, portraying Sonny Corinthos on "General Hospital" weekdays on ABC, talked about his recovery from bipolar illness and how he is able to control the symptoms of his illness with medication and therapy. His story was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show, originally broadcast on Nov. 17, 2004. www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200411/tows_past_20041117.jhtml

Shawn Colvin, winner of two Grammy Awards in music, talked about her struggle with depression on the Oprah Winfrey show. www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200411/tows_past_20041117.jhtml

Judy Collins, singer and songwriter, has written Sanity and Grace: A Journey of Suicide, Survival and Strength, (J. P. Tarcher, 2003) which chronicles her journey as a survivor after the 1992 death of her 33-year-old son by suicide and looks at family issues involving her own suicide attempt as a teen.

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, and author of many books on mental illness.  Dr. Jamison has bipolar illness herself and has attempted suicide. Her work, Touched with Fire, lists and describes many famous persons whose lives have been changed by bipolar illness.

William Styron, author, writes about his depression in his book, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness, published in 1990.

John Nash, Nobel Prize winner in mathematics, who has schizophrenia.  His story is told in the book and movie, A Beautiful Mind, by Sylvia Nasar

Carrie Fisher, actress who played Princess Leia in "Star Wars" movies, talks about her bipolar illness in "BP magazine," Fall 2004, pp. 18-22

Ernest Hemingway, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, had suicidal depression. Read about him in True Gen: An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingway by Those Who Knew Him, by Denis Brian, 1989, Delacorte Press, ISBN 0385297386, paperback, or

hardback, c. 1987, Grove Press ISBN 0802100066

The following persons are named on the National Alliance on Mental Illness web page at http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Helpline1&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=4858

Virginia Woolf, the British novelist who experienced mood swings of bipolar disorder who died by suicide, chronicled in The Dynamics of Creation, by Anthony Storr.

Lionel Aldridge, a football player for the Green Bay Packers during the 1960's, developed schizophrenia and was homeless for 3 years.  Numerous newspaper articles were written about him.

Eugene O'Neill, famous playwright, author of "Long Day's Journey into Night," and "Ah, Wilderness!" suffered from clinical depression.  His story is told in Eugene O'Neill by Olivia E. Coolidge.

Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, had bipolar disorder. You can read about his life in The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life, by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb.

Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace, wrote about his mental illness in the memoir Confession.  His story is told in The Dynamics of Creation, by Anthony Storr and The Inner World of Mental Illness: A Series of First Person Accounts of What It Was Like, by Bert Kaplan.

John Keats, poet, discussed in The Dynamics of Creation, by Anthony Storr and The Broken Brain: The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry, by Nancy Andreasen, M.D.

Tennessee Williams, American playwright, gave a personal account of his struggle with clinical depression in his own Memoirs.  You can also read about his life in Five O'Clock  Angel: Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948-1982, The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams by Donald Spoto and Tennessee: Cry of the Heart by Dotson

Vincent Van Gogh, famous painter and artist with bipolar disorder, discussed in The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life, by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb

Isaac Newton, scientist, with bipolar disorder, discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr and The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb.

Sylvia Plath, poet and novelist, ended her lifelong struggle with clinical depression by taking her own life. Described in A Closer Look at Ariel: A Memory of Sylvia Plath by Nancy Hunter-Steiner.

Michelangelo, artist who is discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storrs.

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, who had bipolar disorder. Read more about him in Churchill's Black Dog, Kafka's Mice, and Other Phenomena of the Human Mind by Anthony Storr

Vivien Leigh, actress in “Gone with the Wind,” who’s live is described in Vivien Leigh: A Biography by Ann Edwards

Jimmy Piersall, baseball player for the Boston Red Sox, who has bipolar disorder. Read his story in Truth Hurts by Jimmy Piersall

Patty Duke, actress, with bipolar disorder described in Call Me Anna by Patty Duke and A Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic-Depressive Illness co-authored with Gloria Hochman

Charles Dickens, English author, with clinical depression whose life is described in The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb and Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph by Edgar Johnson

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